Discontinuous and incremental processes in the song learning of birds: evidence for a primer effect |
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Authors: | H Hultsch D Todt |
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Institution: | (1) Institut für Verhaltensbiologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Haderslebenerstrasse 9, D-12163 Berlin, Germany |
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Abstract: | Studies on the song learning in birds revealed a puzzling property of the acquisition system: Stimulus memorization becomes effective after remarkably few exposures, but nevertheless shows a relationship to the frequency of exposure to learning stimuli. This raises questions on the amount of learning that will occur during a given exposure to song. To examine this issue, we tutored handraised fledgling nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) with song strings, in which the serial succession of species-typical master songs was altered upon subsequent exposures. The sequencing of imitations obtained from the birds' adult singing revealed the following results: (1) A single exposure was sufficient for subjects to acquire serial information on song-type sequencing. (2) The first exposure to a master string played a key role for this accomplishment. (3) Nevertheless, the acquisition of serial information improved with increasing exposure frequency of master strings. (4) The acquisition of song patterns was not impaired by a non-regular presentation of master song-types. With respect to the particular salience of the first exposure for sequence memorization, we termed the phenomenon primer effect . The findings suggest that stimulus acquisition during perceptual song learning is mediated by a discontinuous process. Once acquired, information is then consolidated gradually, i.e. through an incremental process. |
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Keywords: | One trial learning Primacy-recency Serial learning Song acquisition Song birds |
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